◆ SpookStack

IOP SECRET Pres~dent Eisenhower in March 1960, Nixon was put in a Catch-22 situation; for as he said: President Eisenhower had instructed Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, to brief the Democratic candidate on all opera- tions, including· Top Secret operations. I knew that Kennedy had already received two briefings from Dulles. I immediately had a member of my staff call the White House on the security line to ask if these briefings covered Cuba. A member of the White House Staff indicated they had. (Several months after the election, Allen Dulles was to state that his brief- ing of Kennedy had included Cuba but not the training program fott... Cuban exiles.) At the time of the debate, however, and after checking with the White House, I had to proceed with the assumption that Kennedy had been briefed on the secret program. I was faced with the heads-he-wins, tails-I-lose proposition. If in the TV debate I were to reveal the existence of the training program and point out that I had been one of its strongest advocates, I would pull the rug out from under Kennedy's position. But if I did so., the project would be doomed, and also the lives of the brave men, both inside and outside of Cuba, who were receiving training and assistance. I had only one choice: to protect the security of the program, I had to oppose Kennedy on his position of advocating that the United States openly aid anti-Castro forces inside and outside Cuba. 26/ It is interesting to observe that Nixon became more philosophical about the impact of the final TV - 271 -